Themes: Brief Encounters, Down on Their Luck, Crumbling Marriages
Main Cast: Robert Redford, Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, Oliver Platt, Seymour Cassel
Release Year: 1993
Country: US
Run Time: 119 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Adrian Lyne buffs the premise of Honeymoon in Vegas to a fine gloss in this yuppie melodrama that poses the conundrum of whether the loving husband of an equally loving wife will accept $1 million to allow his wife to spend one night with a billionaire who looks like Robert Redford. All the cynics please take a number and form a line at the right. Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson play Diana and David Murphy, high-school sweethearts who marry and who are doing very well -- Diana is a successful real-estate agent, and David is an idealistic architect who has built a dream house by the ocean -- until the recession hits. Suddenly, David loses his job, and they can't make the mortgage payments. Dead broke, they borrow $5000 from David's father and head to Las Vegas to try to win money to pay the mortgage on their house. At first, they get $25,000 ahead -- but inevitably the house always wins, and they end up losing it all. While Diana is in the fancy casino boutique trying to lift some candy, she is spotted by billionaire John Gage (Robert Redford), who is immediately attracted to her. John invites Diana and David to an opulent party, and it is there that John offers David $1 million for a night with his wife. David is wracked by this moral dilemma, but Diana finally makes the decision on her own, with ensuing consequences for their ideal marriage and their bank account. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Billy Bob Thornton - Day Tripper; Billy Connolly - Auction Emcee; Rip Taylor - Mr. Langford; Selma Archerd - Auction Bidder; Matthew Barry - Architecture Student; Joel Brooks - Realtor; Art Chudabala - Architecture Student; Mariclare Costello - David's Mother; Sheena Easton - Herself; Pierre Epstein - Van Buren; Myra J. - Craps Woman; Jedda Jones - Craps Woman; Israel Juarbe - Citizenship Student; Joe La Due - High Roller; Chi Muoi Lo - Architecture Student; Irene Olga Lopez - Gage's Maid; Rudy E. Morrison - Maitre D'; Lydia Nicole - Citizenship Student; Elsa Raven - Citizenship Student; David Rees - Businessman; Hilary Reynolds - Architecture Student; Joseph Ruskin - Pit Boss; Maurice Sherbanee - Citizenship Student; Kevin West - Screenwriter; Danny Zorn - Screenwriter; Herbie Hancock - Himself; Pamela Holt - David's Girlfriend; Catlyn Day - Wine Goddess; Victoria Thomas; Jerome Rosenfeld - Auction Bidder; Joe Bays - Jeffrey; Nicholas Georgiade - Croupier; Toru Nagai - High-Roller Card-man; Richard Livingston - Mike; Robert "Bobby Z" Zajonc - helicoptor pilot
Credit
Gae S. Buckley - Art Director, Victoria Thomas - Casting, Michael Tadross - Co-producer, Beatrix Aruna Pasztor - Costume Designer, Bernie Pollack - Costume Designer, Bobbie Read - Costume Designer, Adrian Lyne - Director, Joe Hutshing - Editor, Tom Schulman - Executive Producer, Alex Gartner - Executive Producer, John Barry - Composer (Music Score), Keith A. Wester - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ben Nye, Jr. - Makeup, Craig Haagensen - Camera Operator, Mel Bourne - Production Designer, Howard Atherton - Cinematographer, Sherry Lansing - Producer, Etta Leff - Set Designer, William Goldman - Screenwriter, Amy Jones - Screenwriter, Jack Engelhard - Book Author
Childhood sweethearts David (Woody Harrelson) and Diana Murphy (Demi Moore) are a married couple who travel to Las Vegas, hoping they can win enough money to finance David's fantasy real estate project. They place their money on red in roulette and lose. After gambling away all of their savings, they encounter billionaire John Gage (Robert Redford). John is attracted to Diana and offers David one million dollars to spend a night with her. After a difficult night, David and Diana decide to accept the offer, and a contract is signed the next day. John flies Diana to a private yacht, and it is assumed that their arrangement is consummated.
Although he had hoped to forget the whole incident, David grows increasingly insecure about his relationship with Diana, consumed with a fear that she remains involved with Gage; this insecurity is heightened by the fact Diana discovers that Gage has bought their home/property while it was going into foreclosure. Because of this tension on their relationship, David and Diana separate. John actively persists and renews his advances on Diana. Although she initially resists, Diana eventually consents to spending time with him, and a relationship develops. David, meanwhile, realizes he cannot go on without the love of his life. When Diana files for divorce, David makes one final attempt to win her back by signing the divorce papers and giving the million dollars away.
John sees how Diana looks at David and recognizes that, even if she stayed with him, their relationship would never achieve the intensity she had with David. Then John misleads her into thinking that she was only the latest in a long line of "million dollar girls". She leaves John and returns to David.
The film was a box office success, earning $106,614,059 in the U.S. and $160,000,000 internationally for a worldwide total of $266,614,059.[citation needed]
Despite the film's success at the box office, it received mostly negative reviews from critics[1]Gene Siskel gave the film thumbs down. Roger Ebert, however, gave it thumbs up on Siskel & Ebert.[2] Ebert also wrote a positive print review.[3] The film won three Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture and Worst Supporting Actor (Woody Harrelson)
Although this film shares some thematic elements with the novel that inspired it, the underlying plot is entirely different: in Engelhard's novel, main character Joshua is a Jew, and his billionaire foil is an Arab. The mental battle between Joshua and his rival is therefore not merely a game of money but rather an extension of the Arab-Israeli conflict. While the novel does end on a positive note, it is not the happy ending portrayed in the film.
